How Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United won the treble 25 years on
Manchester United won the treble. Tottenham’s Les Ferdinand has expressed concern that his goal will give Arsenal the title. Rob Lee recalls Newcastle’s “fight” in FA Cup final Raimond van der Gouw predicted 2-1 but with 1-0 minutes remaining, Phil Neville said Champions League glory at Barcelona against Bayern Munich would be “difficult now”.
Memories of the players involved in Manchester United’s three defining trebles, the first in English football history, ushered Sir Alex Ferguson’s side into immortality on 10 glorious days a quarter of a century ago on Sunday.
When Tottenham arrived at Old Trafford for the final game of the Premier League campaign on 16 May 1999, Ferguson’s side had 76 points, one more than Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. However, 24 minutes later, disaster struck as Ferdinand scored in a moment of raw emotion for the childhood Spurs fan.
“All of us Spurs players and me being a Spurs fan were aware of the situation – if we won the game and Arsenal won [against Aston Villa at Highbury] our reputation in north London would be ruined,” recalls the former England striker. “As a player, you know what you’re talking about. You want to go out there and win but you understand the consequences of winning. I remember scoring and thinking: ‘What have we done here?’
Table of Contents
More of Manchester United won the treble:-
“The celebrations were silent, that is, the players jumped on me and I had the euphoria of scoring; You feel this first and foremost. It had been a pretty horrible season injury-wise, so I hadn’t played that many games. But after celebrating, we start running back to the halfway line and you think: “That put us 1-0 up, that could give Arsenal the title.” How much worse could my season get?
![](https://fifa24.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/p1.jpg)
“I grew up in Ladbroke Grove [west London] as a Spurs fan,” says Ferdinand. “My cousin was a Liverpool fan, he used to have all the Liverpool kit and stuff like that and I was: ‘No, no, no, I’m not going to support a team outside of London, I’m going to support a team.’ inside London. “At that time, Tottenham was the glamor club.” Manchester United won the treble